Gil Cates, acclaimed producer and director, dies at 77

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Gilbert (“Gil”) Cates, a multifaceted theater, film and television producer and director, as well as a university dean, has died.

Cates, 77, collapsed late Monday afternoon on a parking lot at the University of California, Los Angeles and an emergency ambulance crew was unable to revive him. According to UCLA sources, he had undergone heart surgery earlier this month.

Cates’ lengthy resume includes producer — and invigorator — of 14 Oscar telecasts, founding director of the Geffen Playhouse, founding former dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and two-time Emmy winner and Oscar nominee. He also produced and directed Broadway and off-Broadway shows.

In 1998, he co-produced the celebration of Israel’s 50th anniversary at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, which was nationally telecast.

Born Gilbert Katz in New York City, he was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. Following the example of his idolized older brother Joseph, also a director and producer, Gilbert Anglicized his last name.

In an L.A. Jewish Journal article in 2000, based on an hourlong interview, Cates expressed some qualms about the name change and said he was astonished that many people didn’t realize he was Jewish.

Cates, a member of the Reform Wilshire Boulevard Temple, said “I don’t lay tefillin and I only go to shul on the High Holy Days, but I feel very proud to be Jewish.” He was the patriarch of large at-home family seders.

To the question whether his Jewish background affected his role as producer and director, Cates observed that the answer goes well beyond a count of plays with specifically Jewish themes and characters. For instance, he saw in “Harriet’s Return,” which dealt with Harriet Tubman’s struggle for the freedom of African-American slaves, a play of basic Jewish concern.

Cates stumbled into his profession by accident. He was a pre-med student at Syracuse University and a member of its fencing team when he was asked to instruct student actors in a production of “Richard III” to handle swords. He was so taken by the experience that he changed his major to theater.

He is survived by his wife, prominent gynecologist Dr. Judith Reichman; four children, including director-writer Gil Cates Jr., two stepchildren, and six grandchildren. He was the uncle of actress Phoebe Cates.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Reichman was in Tel Aviv at the time of her husband’s death, where her daughter had recently given birth to a baby.